DFE 9 Notes (Laura)
In this session our intrepid explorers first escaped from the Giant's Tomb, no easy feat due to the increasingly oppressive heat of the rising lava and our repeated failures to figure out how to get the sliding wall that had trapped Ademar to recede. First, Wakinyan carried the burned man to safety, then he and Kakra used Stretcher spells to get Merkha and the coffin to the level above. Ademar explored a narrow tunnel behind the wall while Deucalion and Leonus unsuccessfully tried to open it. Leonus did find 3 round parchments and a gem while searching for an opening mechanism. Ademar, meanwhile, found some kind of pointed statue in the tunnel but had no torch or equipment so he could not examine it. Wakinyan healed the burned man, whose name is Andu. Eekam was observed by several party members doing some looting, and he and Jak eventually made off with a giant gold cup. With the lava continuing to rise, Leonus cut off a piece of the giant mushroom, being sprayed with red liquid as he did, and Loic broke open the giant jar, took a faceful of orange dust to the face, and fought with a slimy worm coiled inside. Banging randomly on the statue in the dark, Ademar managed to summon a Sphinx who spoke to him in Ancient Egyptian, necessitating Deucalion to pass psionic messages back and forth between Ademar and Merkha to communicate. When Ademar told the Sphinx he wanted to leave, he was suddenly transported to the other side of the black bridge, the psionic connection breaking. The rest of the party didn't know Ademar was safe, but they did know that the corridor he and the Sphinx were in was cool in temperature and the lava room was starting to get uninhabitable, so after trying a few more unsuccessful manipulations to open the door, they decided to retreat and try to get in from the top instead. Leonus used a tablet to summon an earth elemental and drill down into the tunnel. Meanwhile, Jaicinteleq and Wakinyan opened the other coffin to find a chained elf inside, but he vanished immediately. Finding Ademar gone, Leonus talked to the Sphinx who gave Leonus a magic coin with which to contact her later. Psionically scanning the wilderness, Deucalion sensed an animal with strong emotions on the bridge. The party set off to investigate and found the na'ama we had earlier heard screaming in the forest sitting on the bridge. Jaicinteleq determined that she was a mother cat, was not hostile, and was not in distress. Wakinyan determined that she was not a companion animal, although this later proved to be incorrect. Deucalion psionically communicated with her and began trying to track the location of her cubs. Meanwhile, Ademar was arguing with a mysterious sorceress named Ledaina at the other end of the bridge. The rest of the party didn't get to hear what they said to each other, but Ademar had had enough and jumped 60 feet down into the river rather than interact with her any more. Jaicinteleq and Leonus tried to talk to her, but she was cross and uninterested in sharing information with us, instead telling us to talk to Willa and disappearing. Wakinyan realized that the water had healing properties, so he healed his burned arms and used it to treat Andu's wounds. Jaicinteleq and Kakra, who had been poisoned by the ratmen's arrows earlier, also used the water. Then a powerful tree shot Jak out of the sky, nearly killing his flying mount. We went to use the healing water on the mount, only to be stopped by Willa, a witch of the woods, who warned us the water was cursed and no one who used it could leave the Xendrik again. Oops. We were so spooked by that information that no one thought to ask Jak and his mount whether they ever had any intention of leaving the Xendrik again anyway. Instead we just let Willa heal the mount. She talked to the party for some time, telling Jaicinteleq about many different kinds of trees, examining Loic's moon amulet, discovering a Periku dragon rider's gear hidden inside Loic's stuffed animal, telling us about the "White King" who tried to conquer the Xen'drik and still rules part of it, telling Rachel that Namanda in the castle yonder knew more about the fate of her comrade Ben Shalom, and most importantly letting us play with the na'ama kittens. Jaicinteleq told her about the suffering vine she had encountered near the teleporter, and she went off to look for it, first telling Aegia that she and the other children could stay with Willa if they chose to. Aegia reacted strangely to Willa and the na'ama, but said that she thought the children should wait for us at Willa's house, so we fetched them, also adding the biologer Gwen back to our away team to take notes on all the plant info. Rachel, after getting uncharacteristically snippy with Wakinyan about it, explained to the party that Ben Shalom was one of her friends and teammates who had apparently been lost here. Willa says he's dead, which may be why Rachel is so upset. The Israelis want to at least recover his body, and the party agreed to help. Scaling the cliff, the party encountered another witch, Namanda, in her vampire-themed castle. Namanda doesn't know the way to defuse the river's curse either, but she did offer to tell us one of the secrets of the Xen'drik in exchange for fetching a key for her from the mountains. The party chose understanding why our ways of affecting the world don't work the way we're used to in the Xen'drik. Namanda also discussed the Giant's Tomb and Eekam's thievery therefrom, which all of us decided was no big deal EXCEPT that he had made off with some kind of super powerful gem artifact which Namanda was greatly concerned about. Leonus, however, had the locking gem and the instructions, without which it couldn't be used, and Namanda sent a bat servant to fetch the base of the gem, which was also necessary. She did not tell us what the gem does--the instructions are in a language of Avalon Oversea which only she could read--but said if we bring it back to her, she will work on it together with us. She also remarked that Ademar is Godmarked. Wakinyan also tried to ask her about Ben Shalom, but Rachel--despite having previously asked Willa about him in public and NOT having asked us to keep it a secret from Namanda--went apeshit on him about this, causing Esther to pull a gun on him and Wakinyan to once again have to admonish her "Esther! Use your words!" And there we left off for the session. Onwards! Jaicinteleq